Hulle Granz Cathedral
thumb|Hulle Granz Cathedral Hulle Granz Cathedral or Grima Raef Cathedral (グリーマ・レーヴ大聖堂) is a field located at Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. It is one of the Lost Grounds, and functioned as a Root Town in Fragment, the beta version of The World. Hulle Granz is a unique field, in that it consists only of a small island with a large cathedral in the center located in a lake of mist. The area's Fragment keyword was "Navel of Lake", and it is said to be an important place from the Epitaph of Twilight. Hulle Granz is the site of many important events in both Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate. Its name means "That Which Hides Heaven." The World R:2 Official Story Epitaph of the Twilight History Fragment In Fragment, Hulle Granz was a Root Town known as Navel of Lake. Unlike its future incarnations, the lake around the island was filled with water during this time. Rumors spoke of a strange upside down man who would appear and talk to people inside of the cathedral. Following the transition between Fragment and The World, Hulle Granz lost its status as a Root Town, becoming nothing more then an odd field in the game. .hack//AI Buster thumb|The Cathedral, seen without the sea of mist The Cathedral is the site of many important scenes in AI Buster. It is the place where Albireo first encounters Lycoris, and where Lycoris ultimately allows herself to be deleted by him. .hack//SIGN thumb|left|The Twilight Eye. During SIGN it is revealed that the Cathedral is the location of the fabled Twilight Eye. Using a Fairy Orb or a similar spell causes the eye to open, revealing a secret extension to the Cathedral's bridge, and a red Chaos Gate which teleports people to Θ Bitter Fantasy Mirror World, where an AI Harald is located. These hidden elements were removed by administrators near the end of SIGN. Tsukasa spends some of his time here, and uses the Cathedral as a place to show off the Guardian given to him by Morganna. At the end of SIGN, the Cathedral marks the place where the battle to free Aura began, and where the Phase Maha sacrificed herself in order to protect Tsukasa. .hack//ZERO .hack//Games/.hack//Another Birth Several major events occur in the Cathedral during the Games timeline. It is the place where Kazu fell into a coma after being killed by a Data Bug, as well as the place where Kite activated the Book of Twilight and gained the ability to Data Drain. The area is visited frequently by BlackRose, in remembrance of what happened to her brother. Interestingly, a statue of Aura appears here in the games, chained to the altar by eight chains, each representing a Phase. It is also revealed that the plate on the altar lists the eight phases, though all the names past Magus are faded and impossible to read. During .hack//Mutation, several scenes from SIGN are shown in the cathedral as memory fragments. .hack//Legend of the Twilight During Legend of the Twilight, the Cathedral is the area where Shugo receives the Helba Key from Kazu. In his attempt to escape to Net Slum he is stopped by the Cobalt Knights. Ouka and Kazu team up against the Knights, led by Magi, in an attempt to buy Shugo time. .hack//Roots In G.U. the area appears much it did in the games, with the exception of the altar, which no longer bears a statue, and instead features a Tri-Edge's mark where the faded inscription about the phases used to be. Shino takes Haseo to this area, and tells him about the statue that used to be there. Later, when searching the area for Virus Cores, Tabby and Sakisaka fall into a glitch in the wall, become stuck in a glitched area, and are forced to reboot. Later, Shino is attacked by Tri-Edge and placed into a coma here during Roots, causing Haseo to swear vengeance. Haseo returns to the area several times over the course of Roots, and it becomes a place for his supporters such as Touta to meet him. He later encounters Tri-Edge in the Cathedral and attempts to fight him, unfortunately Tri-Edge is much too powerful for him and defeats him easily, apparently destroying his character with a powerful Data Drain. Unknown to both the fighters Saburou was watching the fight from a hiding place and spreads news of Haseo's defeat to the players of The World R:2. thumb|The Cathedral in SIGN. .hack//GU+ Haseo returns to the Cathedreal to meet with Ovan. Haseo confronts Ovan about why he disappeared for so long but Ovan dismisses him, saying that Tri-Edge will be appearing shortly. Ovan leaves, and Tri-Edge appears shortly afterwards. Haseo tries to fight him but loses, his character destroyed by a data drain. Later a ressurected Haseo returns to the Hulle Granz, to his shock he is teleported to the Lost Ground Indieglut Lugh by the Sign located on the altar. .hack//GU: Rebirth Haseo finally catches up to Tri-Edge in the Cathedral, referred to by Ovan as "that tragic stage." However he is easily defeated by the mysterious PK and gets Data Drained himself. Later, following a post on the BBS, Haseo meets Piros the 3rd here. See also... *Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground (ENEMY) Trivia *In the original .hack games, a strange glitch will project the player's shadow unnaturally "through" the wall at the end of the bridge. For some reason, the same glitch occurs in G.U. *In the Japanese version of the game, the name of the Cathedral is Grima Raef, which means literally "that which hides the roof" in Old Norse, "roof" being a metaphor for "heaven" used in the poem Alvissmal, and "Grima" also being a rather archaic term for "hiding" from the same poem. In the American version of the game, the corresponding words "Hülle" and "Glänz" from the German translation of the Alvissmal are used, though the spelling is corrupted. The reason for the corrupted spelling is unknown, but the reason for the German translation was possibly done in order to make the name "fit in" more with the German terms in the game, such as Gott and Zeit Statues (which are names that did not exist in the Japanese version) and Arche Koeln. category: Lost Grounds